1. Politics, military and law
    Governors  Cabinet members and presidential advisors  Solicitors general  Supreme Court justices  Judges  Legislators  Diplomats  Soldiers  Attorneys  Mayors  Commentators  Candidates  Spies (or alleged)  Other 

2. Business

3. Religion and ministry

4. Arts and literature

5. Performing arts

6. Journalism

7. National Book Awards

8. Pulitzer prizes

9. Science and technology

10. Astronauts and aviators

11. Academics and theorists

12. Sports

13. Activists

14. References

This is a sorted list of notable persons who are alumni of Columbia University, New York City. For further listing of notable Columbians see: Notable alumni at Columbia College of Columbia University; Columbia University School of General Studies; Barnard College; Columbia Law School; Columbia Business School; Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Columbia University Graduate School of Education (Teachers College); Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science; Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Columbia University School of Professional Studies; Columbia University School of the Arts; and the School of International and Public Affairs.

Politics, military and law

See also: Notable alumni of Columbia Law School (Government, Legal academia), Columbia College of Columbia University (Political and diplomatic figures, Legal and judicial figures, Military leaders), School of International and Public Affairs, List of Barnard College people (Political and judicial figures). This partial list does not include all of the numerous Columbia alumni who have served as the heads of foreign governments, in the U.S. Presidential Cabinet, the U.S. Executive branch of government, the Federal Courts, or as U.S. Senators, U.S. Congresspersons, Governors, diplomats, mayors (or other notable local officials), or as prominent members of the legal profession or the military.

Governors

• Willie Blount – Governor of Tennessee (1809–1815)
• Doyle E. Carlton (L.L.B. 1912) – Governor of Florida
• DeWitt Clinton (1786) – Governor of New York, Senator, mayor of New York City, main proponent of the Erie Canal
• Lawrence William Cramer (M.A.) – second civilian Governor of the United States Virgin Islands (1935–1940)
• Arthur G. Crane (Ph.D. 1920) – acting Governor of Wyoming (1949–1951)
• Colgate Darden – Governor of Virginia, president of the University of Virginia, chancellor of the College of William and Mary, Democratic Congressman from Virginia, namesake of Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
• Gray Davis (Law) – Governor of California (1999–2003), Lieutenant Governor of California (1995–1999), California State Controller (1987–1995)
• Howard Dean (GS, Pre-med) – Governor of Vermont (1991–2003); chairman of the Democratic National Committee (2005–2009)
• Thomas E. Dewey (Law 1925) – Governor of New York (1943–1955); New York prosecutor and District Attorney of New York; Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1944 (against Roosevelt) and in 1948 (against Truman)
• Hamilton Fish (1827) – Governor of New York, U.S. Senator
• Judd Gregg (B.A. 1969) – Governor of New Hampshire; U.S. Representative; U.S. Senator
• Wilford Bacon Hoggatt – governor of the District of Alaska
• Charles Evans Hughes (Law 1884) – Governor of New York
• John Jay – Governor of New York; Chief Justice of the United States
• Thomas Kean – Governor of New Jersey (1982–1990), President of Drew University, Chairman of 9/11 Commission
• Stephen W. Kearny – military governor of California
• John W. King – Governor of New Hampshire (1963–1969); justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court
• Madeleine M. Kunin – Governor of Vermont; Deputy Secretary of Education during the Clinton administration; Ambassador to Switzerland; Ambassador to Liechtenstein
• Ruby Laffoon – Governor of Kentucky
• William Langer – U.S. Senator, 17th and 21st Governor of North Dakota, Attorney General of North Dakota
• William Beach Lawrence – Acting Governor of Rhode Island, Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island
• Oren E. Long – tenth Territorial Governor of Hawaii (1951–1953)
• James L. McConaughy – Governor of Connecticut, President of Wesleyan University, Knox College
• James McGreevey (B.A. 1978) – Governor of New Jersey (2002–2004).^[1]
• Robert B. Meyner – Governor of New Jersey
• George Pataki (Law 1970) – Governor of New York (1995–2006)
• David Paterson (B.A. 1977) – first African American Governor of New York
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt – Governor of New York
• Theodore Roosevelt – Governor of New York
• Charles Wilbert Snow (M.A. 1910) – Governor of Connecticut (1946–1947)
• William Sulzer – Governor of New York, U.S. Congressman (1895–1912)
• Guy J. Swope (SIPA) – acting Governor of Puerto Rico
• Daniel D. Tompkins (1795) – Vice President of the United States, Governor of New York
• Peter Vroom (1808) – Governor of New Jersey (1829–1832, 1833–1836)
• George P. Wetmore (L.L.B. 1869) – Governor of Rhode Island
• Horace White – Governor of New York; Lieutenant Governor of New York; trustee of Cornell University

Cabinet members and presidential advisors

• Madeleine Albright (Ph.D. 1976, LLD[hons.] 1995) – 64th United States Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton (1997–2001); first female Secretary of State
• Reuben Baetz – Canadian politician, four-time cabinet Minister in the governments of Bill Davis and Frank Miller
• William Pelham Barr (B.A. 1971, M.A. 1973) – 77th United States Attorney General (1991–1993)
• Jared Bernstein (Ph.D. 1994) – Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden in the administration of President Barack Obama; member of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry (2009-); executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class (2009-)
• Hans Blix – Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs (1976–1978)
• Erskine Bowles (MBA) – White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton; former head of the Small Business Administration; President of University of North Carolina system
• Harold Brown – United States Secretary of Defense in the Carter administration; Secretary of the Air Force; former president of Caltech
• Karin Maria Bruzelius (LL.M. 1969) – Swedish Under Secretary of State (1989–1997) (first women to hold such a position), Swedish Deputy Under Secretary of State (1979–1983)
• Pat Buchanan (Journalism) – senior advisor to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan; conservative commentator, speechwriter
• Arthur Frank Burns (B.A. 1925, M.A. 1925, Ph.D. 1934) – Austrian-born U.S. economist, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (1953–1956), Chairman of the Federal Reserve System (1970–1978), Ambassador to West Germany (1981–1985)
• Elaine Chao – United States Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush (2001–2009); former Director of the Peace Corps; President and CEO, United Way of America; United States Secretary of Transportation under President Donald Trump (2017- )
• Jerome Choquette (CBS) – Canadian Minister of Justice (1970–1975), Minister of Education (1975), Minister of Financial Institutions (1970)
• J. Reuben Clark – Under Secretary of State (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of State from 1919 to 1972) in the administration of President Calvin Coolidge, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico (1930–1933)
• Bainbridge Colby (1891) – United States Secretary of State, founder of 1912 Progressive Party
• William Colby – Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford
• John Collier – United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1933–1945), implemented reform of federal Indian policy
• William Joseph Donovan (Law 1908) – founder and first director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (formed during World War II), the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), known as Father of the CIA
• Ingrid Eide (1957–1960) – Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1979–1981) (replacing Knut Frydenlund), United Nations official, sociologist
• Joseph F. Finnegan (1904–1964) – fourth Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, from 1955 to 1961.^[2]
• Hamilton Fish (1827) – United States Secretary of State (1869–1877)
• Tom Frieden (M.D., MPH) – Director, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the administration of President Barack Obama (2009-)
• Stephen Friedman – former director of the United States National Economic Council under George H. W. Bush; Chairman of the United States President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2005–2009) (replacing Brent Scowcroft)
• William Dudley Foulke (Law 1871) – United States Civil Service Commission
• James Rudolph Garfield (1888) – United States Secretary of the Interior (1907–09), United States Civil Service Commission (1902–1903)
• Ashraf Ghani (M.A., Ph.D.) – Afghanistan's Finance Minister (2002–2004)
• George Graham ( B.A. 1790) – United States Secretary of War ad interim (1816–1817) under Presidents James Madison and James Monroe
• John Graham (B.A. 1790) – Acting United States Secretary of War (1817)
• Ulysses S. Grant, Jr. (Law) – personal secretary to President Ulysses S. Grant
• Alan Greenspan – former Chairman of Federal Reserve System (1987–2006), studied for a Ph.D. in economics
• Joseph Rudolph Grimes (M.A.) – second Foreign Minister (Secretary of State) of Liberia (1960–1971) (longest serving in history of Liberia), Acting Secretary of State of Liberia
• Philip Gunawardena (post-graduate work) – Cabinet Minister in government of Sri Lanka
• Alexander Haig (CBS, 1954, 1955) – United States Secretary of State in Ronald Reagan's administration, twice White House Chief of Staff under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, NATO Supreme Commander
• John D. Hawke, Jr. – Comptroller of the Currency (1998–2004), Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance
• Alexander Hamilton – first United States Secretary of Treasury (1789–1795)
• Eric Holder (1976) – 82nd United States Attorney General (2009–); first African-American Attorney General; former Acting United States Attorney General in Clinton Administration; United States Deputy Attorney General
• Johan Jørgen Holst (B.A. 1960) – Norwegian Foreign Minister (Secretary of State), the Oslo Accord of 1994 between Israel and the Palestinians
• Charles Evans Hughes – United States Secretary of State (1921–1925), Associate and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Radu Irimescu (1920) – Romanian Minister of War, Minister of the Air Forces
• John Jay – second United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1763–1789)
• Robert Joseph (1978 Ph.D.) – Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (2005–2007)
• Georgina Kessel (Ph.D.) – Mexican economist, Secretary of Energy in cabinet of Felipe Calderón (2006-)
• Leon Keyserling (A.B. 1928) – Head (1950–1953) and Acting Head (1949) of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Harry S. Truman; helped draft major New Deal legislation, including National Industrial Recovery Act, Social Security Act, and the National Labor Relations Act
• Madeleine Kunin (M.A.) – Deputy United States Secretary of Education (1993–1997)
• Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby (J.D. 1975) – former Chief of Staff for Vice President Dick Cheney
• Robert R. Livingston – first United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1781–1783)
• Gunnar Lund (M.A. 1972) – minister in the Swedish cabinet (2002–2004)
• Harry McPherson (1949–1950) – White House Counsel under President Lyndon Johnson (1963–69)
• Franklin MacVeagh (1864) – United States Secretary of the Treasury (1909–13)
• Carlos Tello Macias (M.A.) – former Mexican Secretary of Budget and Planning in the cabinet of José López Portillo, economist, academician
• F. David Mathews (Ph.D.) – Secretary of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare under Gerald Ford (1975–1977), President of University of Alabama
• Raymond Moley (Ph.D. 1918) – senior adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt; a leading New Dealer; leading member of first Brain Trust; recruited its members from Columbia faculty; became sharp critic of New Deal; senior adviser to President Richard Nixon; Presidential Medal of Freedom (1970)
• Claude Morin – Canadian Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs in cabinet of René Lévesque
• Rogers Morton (attended CUCP&S) – 39th United States Secretary of the Interior (1971–1975), 22nd United States Secretary of Commerce (1975–1976), special counsellor to President Gerald Ford (with Cabinet rank), chairman of the Republican National Committee
• Michael Mukasey (B.A. 1963) – United States Attorney General (2007–2009), former U.S. District Judge and Chief Judge
• Jim Nicholson – United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (2005–2007) under (George W. Bush)
• Bernard Nussbaum – White House Counsel under Bill Clinton
• Francis Perkins – United States Secretary of Labor (1933–1945), first female cabinet member, United States Civil Service Commission (1946–1953)
• Frank Polk – Acting United States Secretary of State (1920); Under Secretary of State (1919–1920); headed American Commission to Negotiate Peace (1919)
• Randal Quarles (B.A.) – Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance (2005–2006)
• Theodore Roosevelt – 25th Vice-President of the United States (1901), United States Civil Service Commission (1888–1895)
• Samuel I. Rosenman (1919) – first White House Counsel (1943–46)
• William K. Reilly (M.S. 1971) – Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (1989–93)
• Carlos P. Romulo (M.A. 1921) – served eight Philippine presidents from President Manuel L. Quezon to President Ferdinand Marcos as a cabinet member or as the country's representative to the United States and to the United Nations
• James P. Rubin (B.A. 1982, M.A. 1984) – United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs (1997–2000), Chief Spokesperson for the State Department, considered Secretary Albright's right-hand man in Clinton Administration
• Charles F.C. Ruff – White House Counsel under Bill Clinton; in Watergate scandal, Special Prosecutor who investigated President Richard Nixon; represented Anita Hill (vs. Clarence Thomas) and Bill Clinton (impeachment)
• Brent Scowcroft (M.A., Ph.D.) – twice United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush
• Joan E. Spero (M.A. International Affairs, 1968; Ph.D. 1973) – Under Secretary of State at several bureaus (1993–97), current President of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (1997-)
• Maurice H. Stans (1928–30) – United States Secretary of Commerce (1969–72); deputy director (1957–1958) and director (1958–1961) Office of Management and Budget; Deputy United States Postmaster General (1955–1957) (Cabinet rank until 1971), Accounting Hall of Fame
• George Stephanopoulos (B.A. 1982) – senior advisor to President Clinton
• Harlan Fiske Stone – United States Attorney General (1924–1925); Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1925–1941); Chief Justice of the United States (1941–1946)
• Oscar S. Straus (1873) – Secretary of Commerce and Labor (1906–09), the first Jewish Cabinet member
• George Tenet – (M.I.A.) Director of Central Intelligence (1997–2004)
• Daniel D. Tompkins – Vice President of the United States (1817–1825), declined appointment as United States Secretary of State by President James Madison
• Russell E. Train (J.D. 1948) – Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (1973–1977), chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (1970–73), Under Secretary of the Interior (1967–1970)
• Harold E. Varmus – one of three co-chairs of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in the Obama administration
• Murray Weidenbaum (M.A.) – chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
• Harry Dexter White – senior Treasury official under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, helped found World Bank and International Monetary Fund, alleged in Venona papers to be a spy for the Soviets

Solicitors general

• Lloyd Wheaton Bowers (1909–1910) – United States Solicitor General
• Charles Fried (1985–1989) – United States Solicitor General
• Daniel M. Friedman (1977) – Acting United States Solicitor General
• Stanley Foreman Reed (1935–1938) – United States Solicitor General
• R. Kent Greenawalt (1971–1972) – Deputy United States Attorney General
• Donald B. Verrilli Jr. (1981–1983) – United States Solicitor General

Supreme Court justices

• Samuel Blatchford – United States Supreme Court Justice
• Benjamin Cardozo – U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• William O. Douglas – U.S. Supreme Court Justice; Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); professor of law at Columbia and Yale law schools
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg – Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge of the D.C. Circuit Court, former professor at Columbia Law School
• Charles Evans Hughes – Associate and Chief Justice of U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Secretary of State; Governor of New York; Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1916 (against Wilson and Roosevelt)
• John Jay – first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; Governor of New York
• Joseph McKenna (studied at the Columbia Law) – Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1892–1897)
• Stanley Forman Reed – U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Solicitor General of the United States
• Harlan Fiske Stone – Associate and Chief Justice of U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Attorney General; Professor and Dean, Columbia Law School
• Neil Gorsuch - Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Judges

See also: Notable alumni of Columbia Law School (Federal judges and State government) and Columbia College of Columbia University (Legal and judicial figures) for additional listing of more than 69 federal judge positions and 20 state supreme court justices (total more than 79 federal and 28 state judgeships)

• Willard Bartlett (B.A.) – chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1914–1916)
• Egbert Benson (1765) – chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; First Attorney General of the State of New York and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York
• Samuel Blatchford (1837) – chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• José A. Cabranes (1961) – judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; first Puerto Rican appointed to serve on a U.S. District Court, United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
• Edgar M. Cullen (B.A. 1860) – chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1904–1913)
• Paul S. Diamond (B.A. 1974) – judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. (B.A. 1978) – judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; judge, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
• Murray Gurfein – federal judge in the Pentagon Papers case; United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Eric Holder (1973) – judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Deputy U.S. Attorney General, Acting U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Attorney General (2008-)
• Philip Jessup (Ph.D.) – judge, International Court of Justice (1961–1970), namesake of Philip C. Jessup Cup
• Shi Jiuyong (LL.M.) – President (2003-) and judge (1994–2003), International Court of Justice
• Samuel Jones (1790) – fifth Chancellor of New York, ex officio member of the New York Court of Appeals
• Robert Katzmann (A.B. 1973) – judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Judith Kaye (B.A. Barnard College 1958) – Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals (1993–2008)
• V.K. Wellington Koo (Ph.D.) – judge, International Court of Justice (1957–1967)
• Robert Livingston – first Chancellor of New York; administered oath of office to President George Washington; negotiated the Louisiana Purchase; U.S. Minister to France
• Constance Baker Motley (LL.B. 1946) – first African-American woman federal court judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; New York State senator; Manhattan Borough President
• Michael Mukasey (1963) – chief judge (2000–06) and judge (1987–2000) of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney General (2006–2009)
• Clarence V. Opper (LL.B. 1921), judge of the United States Tax Court (1938–1964)^[3][4]
• Richard Roberts (Law 1978) – judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
• Augustus B. Woodward (B.A. 1793) – first Chief Justice of the Michigan Territory; appointed by President Thomas Jefferson; with the governor and two associate justices possessed all the legislative power in the Territory from 1805 until 1824; co-founded the University of Michigan

Legislators

See also: Notable alumni of Columbia Law School (Legislative branch) and Columbia College of Columbia University (United States Political figures) for additional listing of more than 25 U.S. Senators and more than 65 U.S. Congresspersons (total of more than 40 senators and more than 95 congresspersons)

• Sam Arora (B.A. 2003) – delegate, Maryland General Assembly (2011–present)
• Egbert Benson (B.A. 1765) – served in the First and Second United States Congresses
• Fred Biermann (B.A. 1905) – U.S. Congressman from Iowa (1933–1939)
• François Blanchet (M.D. c.1800) – member, Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada
• Shirley Chisholm (M.Ed. Teacher's College) – first African American woman elected to Congress; represented Brooklyn, New York in Congress for seven terms; first African American and first woman to make a serious bid for the presidency of the United States
• DeWitt Clinton – U.S. Senator from New York
• Paul Douglas (M.A. 1915; Ph.D. 1921) – U.S. Senator from Illinois (1949–1967)
• Millicent Fenwick (B.A.) – four-term U.S. Congresswoman from New Jersey (1975–1983)
• Hamilton Fish – U.S. Senator from New York
• De Witt C. Flanagan (c. 1892) – represented {{ushr|New Jersey|4}} 1902–1903;^[5] built and operated Cape Cod Canal
• Slade Gorton (J.D. 1953) – member of 9/11 Commission, U.S. Senator from Washington (1981–1987), Attorney General of Washington
• Frank Porter Graham (graduate degree, c.1916) – U.S. Senator from North Carolina (1949–51)
• Mike Gravel (B.S. 1956) – Democratic Senator from Alaska (1969–1981), candidate for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election
• Judd Gregg (B.A. 1969) – Republican Senator from New Hampshire (1993-)
• Cyrus Habib (B.A. 2003) – 16th Lieutenant Governor of Washington, former State Senator, Washington State (2014–2016), former member of the Washington House of Representatives 2012–2014
• Ken Hechler (M.A., Ph.D.) – U.S. Congressman from West Virginia (1959–1977); West Virginia Secretary of State (1885–2001)
• Abram Stevens Hewitt (1842) – U.S. Congressman from New York (1875–1879, 1881–1887)
• Hal Holmes (B.A. 1927) – U.S. Congressman from Washington (1943–1959)
• Dave Hunt (1990) – Speaker of Oregon House of Representatives, State Representative from Oregon (2003-2013)
• Andy Ireland (graduate studies) – U.S. Congressman from Florida (1981–1993)
• Jacob Javits (School of General Studies) – Republican Senator from New York (1957–1981); Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; New York State Attorney General; Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Daniel T. Jewett (B.A. 1830) – U.S. Senator from Missouri (1870–1871)
• Martin John Kennedy (1909) – U.S. Congressman from New York (1930–1945)
• William Langer – U.S. Senator from North Dakota, Attorney General of North Dakota
• James J. Lanzetta (1917) – U.S. Congressman from New York (1933–1935, 1937–1939)
• Frank Lautenberg (B.Sc. 1949, economics) – Democratic Senator from New Jersey (1982–2001; 2003-), Chairman and CEO of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP)
• Sander M. Levin (M.A. 1954, international relations) – U.S. Congressman from Michigan (1983-)
• Thomas F. Magner (B.A. 1882) – U.S. Congressman from New York (1889–1895)
• Chester Earl Merrow (TC 1937) – U.S. Congressman from New Hampshire (1943–1963)
• Arthur W. Mitchell (attended) – U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1935–1943)
• E.A. Mitchell – U.S. Congressman from Indiana (1947–1949)
• Gouverneur Morris (B.A. 1768, M.A. 1771) – U.S. Senator from New York; author of large sections of the United States Constitution
• James W. Mott (B.A. 1909) – U.S. Congressman from Oregon (1933–1945)
• Karl Earl Mundt (M.A. 1927) – U.S. Senator (1948–1973); Congressman (1939–1948), from South Dakota
• Barack Obama (B.A. 1983) – U.S. Senator from Illinois (2005–2008), 44th President of the United States of America
• David A. Ogden (B.A.) – U.S. Congressman from New York (1817–1819)
• Joseph C. O'Mahoney (B.A.) – U.S. Senator from Wyoming (1934–53;1954–61)
• Claiborne Pell (M.A. 1946) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (1961–1997), sponsor of the Pell Grant
• Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (M.A. 1932) – U.S. Congressman from New York (1945–1971), included in the book 100 Greatest African Americans
• James Skoufis (M.A.) – New York State Assemblyman 2013-present; elected to State Senate in 2018.
• John Slidell (B.A. 1810) – U.S. Senator from Louisiana (1853–61)
• Edward J. Stack (M.A. 1938) – U.S. Congressman from Florida (1979–1981)
• Richard Stone (J.D. 1954) – U.S. Senator from Florida (1975–80), Ambassador at Large to Central America, Amb. to Denmark (1992–93), Secretary of State of Florida
• William Sulzer – U.S. Congressman from New York
• Daniel C. Verplanck (B.A. 1788) – U.S. Congressman from New York (1803–1809)
• Gulian Verplanck (B.A. 1768) – Speaker of the New York State Assembly (1789–1790, 1796–1797)
• Gulian Crommelin Verplanck (B.A. 1801) – U.S. Congressman from New York (1825–1833)
• Peter Dumont Vroom (B.A.) – U.S. Congressman from New Jersey (1839–41), U.S. Envoy to Prussia (1853–57)
• William H. Wiley (CCSM 1868) – U.S. Congressman from New Jersey (1903–1907, 1909 1911)
• Stewart Lyndon Woodford (B.A. 1854) – U.S. Congressman from New York, Lieutenant Governor of New York (1867–1868)

Diplomats

• Hans Blix – Swedish diplomat, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (1981–1997)
• Boutros Boutros-Ghali – (Fulbright Research Scholar, 1954–1955) Secretary-General of the United Nations (1992–1997)
• Arthur Frank Burns (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) – United States Ambassador to West Germany (1981–1985)
• J. Reuben Clark – United States Ambassador to Mexico (1930–1933)
• William Joseph Donovan ("Wild Bill") – United States Ambassador to Thailand (1953–1954)
• Millicent Fenwick (B.A.) – United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture (1983–1987)
• Dore Gold (B.A. 1975, M.A. 1976, Ph.D. 1984) – U.S.-born Israeli diplomat, Ambassador to the United Nations (1997–1999), President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
• Radu Irimescu (1920) – Romanian Minister to the United States
• Jeane Kirkpatrick (Ph.D. 1968, political science) – United States Ambassador to the United Nations under Reagan (1981–1985)
• Madeleine M. Kunin (CSJ) – United States Ambassador to Switzerland (1996–1999), United States Ambassador to Liechtenstein (1996–1999)
• James F. Leonard (1963–64) – United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1977–1979)
• Gunnar Lund (1972) – Swedish Ambassador to the United States (2004–2007), Swedish Ambassador to France (2007-)
• Carlos Tello Macias (M.A.) – former Mexican Ambassador to Cuba, Portugal, and Russia
• Jim Nicholson – United States Ambassador to the Holy See (2001–2005)
• Michael Oren – Israeli Ambassador to the United States
• Mario Laserna Pinzón (B.A. 1948) – Colombian statesman and educator; Colombian Ambassador to France (1976–1979) and Austria (1987–1990); founder, Universidad de los Andes
• Carlos P. Romulo (M.A.) – former United Nations General Assembly President
• Dov S. Zakheim (B.A. 1970)

Soldiers

• Samuel Auchmuty (1775) – loyalist during the American Revolutionary War, Commander-in-Chief, Ireland (1822) and member of the Privy Council of Ireland
• Captain John R. Bierer – Airborne/Ranger, 173rd Abn Bde, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry
• John Watts de Peyster (studied at the law school, M.A.) – Major General during the Civil War; author on the art of war, one of the first military critics, noted for his histories of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars; also published drama, poetry, other military history, military biography, and military criticism
• William Joseph Donovan (Wild Bill) – World War I hero (Medal of Honor); wartime Head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency); known as father of the CIA
• Francis "Gabby" Gabreski (B.A. 1949) – top American fighter ace in Europe during World War II and a jet fighter ace in Korea, Distinguished Service Cross (U.S.A.), Distinguished Flying Cross (U.K.), Croix de guerre with Palm (France), Legion d'honneur (France), and 16 other military decorations
• Alexander Hamilton – Major General during American Revolutionary War; aide-de-camp and confidant to General George Washington; led three battalions at the Siege of Yorktown; Battle of White Plains, Battle of Trenton, Battle of Princeton, Battle of Monmouth
• David Kay (M.S., Ph.D.) – United Nations Chief Weapons Inspector; head of Iraq Survey Group
• Philip Kearny (Law 1833) – Civil War general
• Stephen W. Kearney – conqueror of California in the Mexican–American War, military Governor of California (Territory)
• Alfred Thayer Mahan (1858) – president of U.S. Naval War College; author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
• Hyman G. Rickover – United States Navy Admiral, father of the U.S. nuclear submarine fleet, Enrico Fermi Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, twice awarded Congressional Medal of Freedom
• Theodore Roosevelt – during the Spanish–American War, organized the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, dubbed the Rough Riders by news reporters; posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor (in 2001) for gallantry shown during dual charges up Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898
• Henry Rutgers (1766) – American Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist; primary supporter of Rutgers College, his namesake (which, in 1924, became Rutgers University)
• Robert Troup – Lieutenant Colonel in American Revolutionary War, aide-de-camp to General Horatio Gates, participated in the surrender of General Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga
• Charles Wilkes – United States Navy Admiral, noted for his 1838–1842 Pacific expedition as well as for his role in the Trent Affair during the Civil War

Attorneys

• William Joseph Donovan (Wild Bill) – United States Attorney for the Western District of New York, first head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), known as the father of the United States Central Intelligence Agency
• William O. Douglas – third chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, professor at Columbia Law and Yale Law School
• Julius Genachowski – chairman of the United States Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in the Obama Administration, former General Counsel of the FCC
• Harvey Goldschmid – commissioner, General Counsel, Special Adviser to the Chairman, United States Securities and Exchange Commission; professor at Columbia Law School
• Jack Greenberg (B.A. 1945, LL.B. 1948) – litigator of Brown v. Board of Education, argued 40 civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, professor at Columbia Law School
• William Kovacic – commissioner (2006) and chairman (2008-) of the United States Federal Trade Commission
• Annette Nazareth – commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
• John Randolph Neal, Jr. – Scopes Trial attorney
• Jim Nicholson – former Chairman of the Republican National Committee
• Robert Pitofsky – commissioner (1978–81) and chairman (1995–2001) of the United States Federal Trade Commission
• Lawrence E. Walsh – Independent Prosecutor for the Iran-Contra Affair
• Edward Baldwin Whitney – United States Assistant Attorney General

Mayors

• Kenny Bowen (M.A.) – three-term Mayor of Lafayette, Louisiana (1972–1980, 1992–1996)
• DeWitt Clinton – Mayor of New York City
• Jerome Choquette (CBS) – Mayor of Outremont, Montreal (Canada)
• Eric Garcetti (B.A.; MIA, SIPA) – Mayor of Los Angeles, California
• Abram Stevens Hewitt (1842) – Mayor of New York City
• Frank S. Katzenbach – former Mayor of Trenton, New Jersey
• Seth Low – University president; Mayor of New York City; Mayor of Brooklyn
• Edward J. Stack (M.A.) – City Commissioner-Mayor Pompano Beach, Florida
• Raymond Tucker (B.A.) – Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri
• Bill de Blasio (M.I.A.) – Mayor of New York City, New York

Commentators

• Cenk Uygur (J.D.) – founder of the largest Internet news show, The Young Turks
• Dan Abrams (J.D. 1992) – media legal commentator
• Paul Stuart Appelbaum (B.A.) – psychiatrist, commentator and expert on legal and ethical issues in medicine and psychiatry
• Amotz Asa-El (M.A. History and Journalism) – leading commentator on Israeli, Middle Eastern, and Jewish affairs
• Dr. Joyce Brothers (Ph.D.) – advice columnist, commentator, and first media psychologist
• Pat Buchanan (CSJ 1962) – conservative columnist, broadcast commentator
• Dalton Camp (CSJ) – Canadian journalist, political commentator and strategist, central figure in Red Toryism
• Leonard A. Cole (M.A., Ph.D.) – commentator and expert on bioterrorism and terror medicine
• Monica Crowley (Ph.D.) – radio and television political commentator
• Lennard J. Davis (B.A., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.) – commentator on the intersection of culture, medicine, disability, and biotechnology
• Lawrence Fertig (M.A.) – libertarian journalist, economic commentator
• Mario Gabelli (CBS) – financial commentator
• Ralph Gleason – jazz and popular music critic and commentator
• Keli Goff – political commentator and blogger
• Ellis Henican (M.A.) – commentator, columnist for Newsday
• Jim Hightower – political commentator
• Molly Ivins (CSJ) – political commentator, newspaper columnist, humorist, bestselling author
• Hilton Kramer – U.S. art critic and cultural commentator
• Steve Liesman (CSJ) – senior economic commentator on NBC
• Edward Luck (MIA, M.A., M.Ph., Ph.D.) – media commentator on arms control, defense, foreign policy, Russian and East Asian affairs, United Nations reform, and peacekeeping
• Shireen Mazari (Ph.D.) – commentator on global strategic issues affecting peace and security; Pakistani political scientist
• Kenneth McFarland (M.A.) – conservative commentator, public speaker, author, superintendent of Topeka, Kansas school system during Brown v. Board of Education
• John McLaughlin (Ph.D.) – political commentator, host of The McLaughlin Group on PBS
• Julie Menin (B.A.) – television news commentator on politics and the law
• Dick Morris (B.A. 1967) – political commentator and author
• Norman Podhoretz (B.A.) – editor of Commentary; a founder of Neoconservatism connected with the controversial Project for the New American Century; Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Alvin F. Poussaint (B.S. 1956) – commentator on race and American society; well known psychiatrist; author
• Wayne Allyn Root (B.A. 1983) - Host "WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show" on Newsmax TV and USA Radio, national political columnist Las Vegas Review Journal
• James Rubin (B.A. 1982, MIA 1984) – Sky News commentator and television journalist
• Laura Schlessinger (Ph.D. 1974) – nationally syndicated radio show, The Dr. Laura Program; conservative commentator
• Ralph Schoenstein (B.A.) – former commentator on NPR's All Things Considered
• Thomas Sowell (M.A.) – economist, conservative social commentator, author
• Ilan Stavans (Ph.D.) – commentator on American, Hispanic, and Jewish cultures
• Ben Stein (B.A. 1966) – conservative economic and political commentator, writer, actor, attorney
• George Stephanopoulos (B.A. 1982) – senior adviser to Bill Clinton, television anchor, media journalist, and political commentator
• Samuel A. Tannenbaum (CSJ) – early commentator on Shakespeare and his contemporaries

Candidates

• Nicholas Murray Butler (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) – vice-presidential candidate with President William Howard Taft in 1912 election (against former President Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson)
• D. Leigh Colvin (Law) – unsuccessful Prohibition Party vice-presidential candidate (1920)
• Thomas Dewey (Law 1925) – presidential candidate in 1944 election (against Franklin D. Roosevelt) and in 1948 (against President Harry S. Truman) in famous "Dewey Beats Truman" election
• Miguel Estrada (B.A. 1983) – controversial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
• Matt Gonzalez (B.A. 1987) – Ralph Nader's 2008 vice-presidential running mate; former president San Francisco Board of Supervisors
• Judd Gregg (B.A. 1969) – Republican Senator from New Hampshire (1993-); nominee for United States Secretary of Commerce in the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama withdrew his name from nomination on February 12, 2009 (because of widening ideological differences with the administration)
• Benjamin Jealous (B.A. 1994) – former president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 2018 Maryland Gubernatorial Election
• William B. Hornblower (B.A. 1875) – unsuccessfully nominated to the United States Supreme Court by President Grover Cleveland in 1893
• Charles Evans Hughes (Law 1884) – presidential candidate in 1916 election (against President Woodrow Wilson)
• Franklin Roosevelt (Law) – vice-presidential candidate with James M. Cox in 1920 election (against Warren Harding)
• Theodore Roosevelt (Law) – presidential candidate in 1912 election (against President William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson); formed Progressive Party, known as the Bull Moose Party
• Wayne Allan Root (B.A. 1983) – journalist, 2008 vice-presidential candidate for United States Libertarian Party

Spies (or alleged)

• Whittaker Chambers – Admitted Soviet spy in the Ware Group, famously testified against Alger Hiss
• Morris Cohen – Soviet spy, subject of Hugh Whitemore's drama for stage and TV Pack of Lies; instrumental in relaying atomic bomb secrets to the Kremlin in the 1940s, eventually settling in Moscow where for decades he helped train Soviet agents against the West
• Victor Perlo – Soviet spy involved in Harold Ware spy ring and Perlo group as shown in Venona list of suspected subversives
• Bernard Redmont (M.S. 1939) – Soviet spy
• William Remington (M.A. 1940) – convicted Soviet spy killed in prison
• Harry Dexter White – Soviet spy; helped establish World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; later revealed to have been involved with the Silvermaster and Ware groups of communist spies while he was a senior U.S. Treasury Department official in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration

Other

• Prince Hussain Aga Khan (2004) – elder son of Prince Karim Aga Khan IV
• B. R. Ambedkar (M.A. 1915, Ph.D. 1928, LLD[hons.] 1952) – a founding father of modern India and the architect of its constitution; honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, given for the highest degree of national service
• Chelsea Clinton – (M.P.H 2010 Mailman School of Public Health)
• Jonathan W. Daniels (failed out of Columbia Law School) – White House Press Secretary under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
• Ben Davidson (B.A. 1924) – co-founder of the Liberal Party of New York State
• Fred Glazer (B.A. 1958, M.L.S. 1964) – library promoter and former Executive Secretary of the West Virginia Library Commission
• Bela Gold – economist on Venona list of suspected Soviet subversives who operated in the U.S.
• Ian Kagedan – Canadian known for his work on inter-religious and inter-ethnic relations
• Caroline Kennedy (J.D. 1988) – director of Commission on Presidential Debates; adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics; one of three co-chairs of President-elect Barack Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee; one of founders of Profiles in Courage Award; attorney, editor, and writer
• John H. Langbein (B.A. 1964) – legal scholar and professor at Yale Law School
• Robert Moses – leader of mid-century urban "renewal" that re-shaped New York
• Charles J. O'Byrne (B.A. 1981, J.D. 1984) – Secretary to the Governor of New York (2008)
• Patricia Robinson (M.A. 1957) – economist and First Lady of Trinidad and Tobago from 1997–2003^[6]
• Karenna Gore Schiff (J.D. 2000) – author, journalist, and attorney
• Thomas Sowell – economist and author
• Dov Zakheim – rabbi; United States Defense Department comptroller (2001–2004); ex-V.P. of System Planning Corp.; signatory to controversial manifesto Rebuilding America's Defenses (2000) of the Project for the New American Century
• Meredith Veit – Mexico Wey

Business

• Robert Agostinelli – co-founder of Rhone Group and Friends of Israel Initiative
• John Jacob Astor III – 19th-century real estate baron
• Frank Lusk Babbott (LLB 1880) – jute merchant and art patron
• Warren Buffett (M.S. Economics 1951) – investor, president of Berkshire Hathaway
• Ursula Burns (M.S. Mechanical Engineering 1981) – CEO of Xerox Corporation (July 1, 2009-)
• William Campbell (B.A.) – Chairman of the Board (incumbent as of 2009) and former CEO of Intuit, Inc.
• Bennett Cerf (B.A. 1919, Litt.B. 1920) – founder of Random House
• Jason Epstein – editorial director at Random House
• Stephen Friedman – Chairman of Goldman Sachs, National Economic Council director, chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
• Mario Gabelli – investor
• James P. Gorman (MBA 1987) – CEO of Morgan Stanley
• Noam Gottesman (B.A.) – billionaire, GLG Partners
• Michael Gould (B.A. 1966) – CEO of Bloomingdale's
• Armand Hammer – President of Occidental Petroleum; internationalist, convicted for illegal campaign donations
• Herman Hollerith (Engineer of Mines 1879, Ph.D. 1890) – founder of The Tabulating Machine Company, a predecessor to IBM
• Walter C. Johnsen (MBA 1978) – Chairman and CEO of Acme United Corporation
• John Kluge – founder of Metromedia
• Alfred A. Knopf (B.A. 1912) – founder of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Publishers
• Robert Kraft (B.A. 1963) – owner of New England Patriots
• Henry Kravis (MBA 1969) – investment banker who invented the leveraged buyout
• Jonathan Lavine (B.A. 1988) – Co-Managing Partner of Bain Capital and Chief Investment Officer of Bain Capital Credit
• Randolph Lerner (1984) – CEO of MBNA Bank, and owner of Cleveland Browns
• Frank Lorenzo (B.A. 1961) – corporate raider
• John R. MacArthur (B.A. 1917) – President and publisher of Harper's, the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the country
• Eric Ober – former President of CBS News division and Food Network
• Timothy L. O'Brien (MBA, 1992) – edits and oversees the Sunday Business section of The New York Times
• Vikram Pandit (B.S.1976, M.S.1977, Ph.D1986, Trustee) – former CEO of Citigroup, 2007–2012
• Wayne Allyn Root (B.A. 1983) – founder and Chairman of Winning Edge International, inducted into Las Vegas Walk of Stars in 2006
• Edwin Schlossberg (B.A. 1967, Ph.D. 1971) – founder of ESI Design (also its Principal Designer)
• David O. Selznick – movie producer
• Robert Shaye (J.D. 1964) – CEO of New Line Cinema
• Lawrence L. Shenfield (B.A. 1915) – advertising executive and philatelist
• Richard L. Simon (1920) – co-founder of Simon & Schuster
• Jon Steinberg (MBA) – President and COO Buzzfeed
• S. Robson Walton (J.D. 1969) – Chairman of the Board, Wal-Mart
• Robert K. Watson (MBA 2007) - Market Transformation Expert and Founder of the LEED Green Building Rating System of U.S. Green Building Council
• Ariel Elizarov (2016) – Founder of Lazarus Enterprises

Religion and ministry

• Sharon Brous (B.A., M.A.) – rabbi and essayist, founder of IKAR
• J. Reuben Clark (J.D.) – prominent leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Elliot Dorff (B.A., Ph.D) – rabbi and prominent decisor of Jewish law
• David Ellenson (Ph.D) – rabbi and eighth president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
• Herbert S. Goldstein (B.A., M.A.) – rabbi and Jewish leader
• Thomas Merton (B.A. 1938, studied for M.A.) – 20th-century Catholic writer, student of comparative religions, trappist monk, poet, author of The Seven Story Mountain; namesake of Thomas Merton Award and Thomas Merton Center
• Frederick Buckley Newell (M.A., 1916) – Bishop of the Methodist Church
• Paula Reimers (M.A. 1971) – rabbi
• Milton Steinberg – rabbi and novelist
• Hazen Graff Werner – Bishop of the Methodist Church

Arts and literature

• Max Abramovitz (M.S. 1931) – architect, Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center
• Aravind Adiga (B.A. 1997) – author of The White Tiger and winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize
• Mitch Albom (M.A., M.B.A.) – author
• Jacob M. Appel (M.A., M.Phil.) – author (Creve Coeur) and playwright (Arborophilia, The Mistress of Wholesome)
• John Ashbery (M.A. 1951) – poet
• Isaac Asimov (B.S. 1939, Ph.D. 1948) – science fiction author, I, Robot
• Paul Auster (B.A. 1969) – postmodern author, The New York Trilogy, Moon Palace (named after now-defunct Chinese restaurant near campus)
• Béla Bartók – composer, pianist, and early scholar in ethnomusicology
• Josh Bazell (M.D.) – novelist
• Kathryn Bigelow (M.F.A. 1979) – film director, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director (The Hurt Locker, 2008)
• James Blish – science fiction author
• Helaine Blumenfeld – sculptor
• Pat Boone (General Studies) – pop singer
• Mary Griggs Burke – largest private collector of Japanese art outside Japan.^[7]
• Elizabeth Cadbury-Brown – architect
• Jim Carroll – writer (The Basketball Diaries), poet, punk rocker^[8]
• Jerome Charyn (B.A. 1959) – novelist
• John Corigliano (B.A. 1959) – composer
• Kiran Desai (M.F.A. 1999) – novelist, winner of 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, 1998 Betty Trask Award
• Alden B. Dow (B.A. 1931) – architect
• Judith Edelman (B.Arch. 1946) – architect
• Peter Eisenmann (M.A.) – architect
• Walter Farley (B.A. 1941) – author, The Black Stallion
• Amanda Filipacchi (M.F.A) – author, Nude Men, Vapor, Love Creeps
• Rolf G. Fjelde – playwright, educator and poet; founding President of The Ibsen Society of America
• Richard Florida (Ph.D. 1986) – author, Rise of the Creative Class
• Allen Forte (B.A.) – music theorist; Battell Professor of Music, Emeritus at Yale University
• Nicholas Gage – author, Eleni, A Place For Us, Greek Fire
• Paul Gallico (1919) – author, The Snow Goose, The Poseidon Adventure, The Silent Miaow
• Federico García Lorca (1929–1930) – poet and playwright
• Allen Ginsberg (B.A. 1948) – Beat Generation poet
• Louise Gluck – U.S. Poet Laureate (2003–2004), Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, Bollingen Prize, William Carlos Williams Award
• Philip Gourevitch (M.F.A. 1992) – recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, editor of The Paris Review
• Edwin Granberry (1920) – writer of the Buz Sawyer comic strip
• Gulgee (1926–2007) – Pakistani calligraphist
• Anthony Hecht (M.A.) – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, US Poet Laureate (1982–1984), 1983 Bollingen Prize, 1988 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, 1997 Wallace Stevens Award, 1999/2000 Frost Medal
• Joseph Heller (M.A. 1949) – author, Catch-22
• Henry Beaumont Herts – architect
• Patrick Higgins (B.A. 2006, M.A. 2011) – composer, musician, producer
• Daniel Hoffman (B.A. 1947, M.A. 1949, Ph.D. 1956) – poet, essayist, US Poet Laureate (1973–1974)
• John Hollander (B.A.) – poet, MacArthur Fellowship "genius grant", Bollingen Prize (1983)
• Lance Hosey – architect, author
• Richard Howard (B.A. 1951) – poet, literary critic, essayist, translator
• Laura Howes (M.A., Ph.D.) – scholar of Middle English literature
• Langston Hughes – writer and poet
• Jack Kerouac (College 1940–1942; dropped out) – writer, founder of the Beat Generation movement
• Mollie Huston Lee – librarian ^[9]
• Ursula K. Le Guin (M.A. 1951) – science fiction and fantasy author
• Edward MacDowell – composer, professor of music
• Patricia McCormick (M.S. 1985) – young adult author
• Carson McCullers – author, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
• Terrence McNally – playwright
• John Matteson (PhD.) – Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer (2008)
• Kate Millett (Ph.D. 1970) – author of Sexual Politics, feminist and artist
• Lewis Mott (Ph.D) – author and President of the Modern Language Association (1911)
• Fereydoun Motamed (M.A. 1952) – linguist, Louis de Broglie award winner from the French Academy (1963)
• Isamu Noguchi – sculptor
• Sharon Olds (Ph.D.) – National Book Critics Circle Award, T.S. Eliot Prize, Lamont Poetry Prize, Poet Laureate of the State of New York (1998–2000)
• Timothy L. O'Brien (M.A., US History) – author; journalist; edits and oversees the Sunday Business section of The New York Times
• Ron Padgett – poet
• James Renwick, Jr. (B.A. 1836, M.A. 1839) – Gothic Revival architect who designed St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York and the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C.
• J.D. Salinger – author, The Catcher in the Rye
• Karenna Gore Schiff (J.D. 2000) – author, journalist, and attorney
• Robert Silverberg – science fiction author
• Upton Sinclair – populist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, The Jungle; presidential candidate
• William Jay Smith – U.S. Poet Laureate (1968–1970), Rhodes Scholar
• Robert A. M. Stern (B.A. 1960) – postmodern architect
• Hunter S. Thompson – author, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
• Melvin B. Tolson (M.A.) – Poet Laureate of Liberia; central character (played by Denzel Washington) in the movie The Great Debaters (2007)
• Erica Simone Turnipseed – writer
• Mark Van Doren (Ph.D. 1920) – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
• Charles Van Doren (M.A., Ph.D. 1955) – author, English professor whose national disgrace was the subject of the Oscar-nominated film Quiz Show
• Eric Van Lustbader – author, The Ninja
• Eudora Welty (Business, 1930–31, hon. LHD 1982) – Pulitzer Prize-winning author, The Optimist's Daughter
• Dick Wimmer (M.A. 1974) – novelist
• Herman Wouk (B.A. 1934) – Pulitzer Prize-winning author, War and Remembrance
• George Wyatt (B.A. 1971) – sculptor
• Mako Yoshikawa (B.A. 1988) – author
• Roger Zelazny (M.A. 1962) – science fiction author
• Aryn Penn (B.A. 1962) – noted Latin and Greek scholar

Performing arts

• Casey Affleck (B.A. 1998) – Golden Globe-nominated and Oscar-nominated actor, Good Will Hunting, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Gone Baby Gone
• Emanuel Ax (B.A. 1970) – pianist, won Avery Fisher prize at age 30, won three Grammy Awards along with cellist Yo-Yo Ma; also awarded the John Jay Award by the University
• Ramin Bahrani (B.A. 1996) – director and writer Man Push Cart, Chop Suey, and Goodbye Solo
• Chris Baio (B.A. 2007) – bassist of Vampire Weekend, Grammy winner
• Rostam Batmanglij (B.A. 2007) – plays piano, keyboards, organ, vocals, guitars, programming, flute, banjo, percussion for Vampire Weekend; Grammy winner
• Albert Berger (M.F.A) – Academy Award-nominated producer of Cold Mountain
• Kathryn Bigelow (M.F.A. 1981) – Academy Award-winning director, Strange Days, Point Break, The Hurt Locker
• Jeremy Blackman (B.A. 2009) – actor, Magnolia
• John Bohlinger (B.A. 1988) – musician, songwriter, writer, television band leader
• Sorrell Booke (B.A. 1949) – actor, best known as "Boss Hogg" on the TV series The Dukes of Hazzard
• Pat Boone (B.S. 1957) – singer, actor
• Joshua Brand (M.A. 1974) – Emmy Award-winning creator of St. Elsewhere, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure
• Sidney Buchman (B.A. 1923) – screenwriter, won an Academy Award for writing for Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.
• Cara Buono (B.A. 1993) – actress, Third Watch
• James Cagney (dropped out) – Academy Award-winning actor, White Heat, Yankee Doodle Dandy; Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Vanessa Carlton – singer, songwriter
• Timothée Chalamet (dropped out) – Academy Award-nominated actor, Call Me by Your Name, Lady Bird
• Peter Cincotti – pianist, singer, songwriter, actor, model
• Spencer Treat Clark (B.A. 2010) – actor, Gladiator, Mystic River, and Unbreakable
• Bill Condon (B.A. 1976) – Academy Award-winning Writer, Gods and Monsters, Chicago, and Director, Kinsey and Dreamgirls
• Ben Cooper – actor
• John Corigliano (B.A. 1959) – composer of classical music, Academy Award winner
• Joseph Cross – actor, Milk
• Adam Davidson (M.F.A 1990) – Academy Award-winning director for Best Short Subject, The Lunch Date
• Ossie Davis (GS 1948) – Golden Globe-nominated actor and activist, Do the Right Thing
• Brian Dennehy (B.A. 1960) – actor, First Blood, Tommy Boy, Romeo + Juliet, Ratatouille
• Brian De Palma (B.A. 1962) – movie director, Carrie, Scarface, and The Untouchables
• I.A.L. Diamond (B.A. 1941) – co-winner of an Academy Award for writing for The Apartment
• R. Luke DuBois (B.A. 1997, M.A. 1999, D.M.A. 2003) – composer, artist, member of the Freight Elevator Quartet
• Fred Ebb (M.A. 1957) – lyricist who collaborated with John Kander on Broadway musicals Cabaret, Chicago, Woman of the Year and Kiss of the Spider Woman and the soundtracks of Funny Lady and New York, New York
• Jason Everman (B.A. 2013) – guitarist; former member of Nirvana and Soundgarden; Army Ranger; Green Beret
• Peter Farrelly (M.F.A. 1986) – Academy Award-winning director for Best Original Screenplay, Green Book; filmmaker, with his brother Bobby Farrelly, There's Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber,
• Matthew Fox (B.A. 1989) – Golden Globe-nominated actor, Lost, Party of Five
• James Franco (M.F.A.) – Academy Award-nominated actor, Spiderman, Pineapple Express, Milk, 127 Hours
• Dan Futterman (B.A. 1989) – actor, The Birdcage, Judging Amy
• Art Garfunkel (B.A. 1965) – singer, songwriter of Simon and Garfunkel
• Greg Giraldo (B.A. 1987) – comedian
• William Goldman (M.A. 1956) – novelist, playwright and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt (attended GS; did not graduate) – actor, 3rd Rock from the Sun
• Lauren Graham (Barnard College; B.A. 1988) – actress, Gilmore Girls
• James Gunn (M.F.A.) – film director (Slither); screenwriter (Dawn of the Dead, Scooby-Doo); novelist (The Toy Collector)
• Jake Gyllenhaal (attended first two years) – Academy Award-nominated actor, Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko, Jarhead
• Maggie Gyllenhaal (B.A. 1999) – Golden Globe and Academy Award-nominated actress, Crazy Heart, Secretary, The Dark Knight
• Oscar Hammerstein II (A.B. 1916) – lyricist and librettist of musicals, Pulitzer Prize-winning Oklahoma!, The King and I and The Sound of Music, collaborator with Richard Rodgers and winner of two Academy Awards, 35 Tony Awards, and two Pulitzer Prizes
• Ed Harris (attended first two years) – Golden Globe-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor, The Truman Show, A Beautiful Mind
• Lorenz Hart – Broadway lyricist, collaborator with both Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, wrote such songs as "Blue Moon", "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "My Funny Valentine"
• Bhupen Hazarika (Ph.D 1952) – Assamese lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker
• Patrick Higgins (B.A. 2006, M.A. 2011) - composer, musician, producer
• Utada Hikaru (did not graduate) – Japanese pop singer
• Lauryn Hill (attended first year) – Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, former Fugees frontwoman
• Boyd Holbrook – fashion model
• Katie Holmes (attended a summer session) – actress
• Famke Janssen (B.A. 1992) – actress, GoldenEye, X-Men
• Jim Jarmusch (B.A. 1975) – filmmaker, Dead Man, The Way of the Samurai, Broken Flowers
• John Kander (M.A.) – lyricist who collaborated with Fred Ebb on such Broadway musicals as Cabaret, Chicago, Woman of the Year and Kiss of the Spider Woman and the soundtracks of Funny Lady and New York, New York
• Jean Kelly (B.A. 1994) – actress
• Alicia Keys (attended first year) – Grammy Award-winning singer, composer
• Ezra Koenig – lead singer of Vampire Weekend, Grammy Award winner
• Joel Krosnick (B.A. 1963) – cellist; member of the Juilliard String Quartet; chairman of Cello Department at Juilliard School
• Robert Kurka (M.A. 1948) – composer of opera and instrumental suite The Good Soldier Schweik
• Tony Kushner (B.A. 1978) – Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Angels in America, recipient of the National Medal of Arts (2012)
• Michael Lehmann (B.A. 1978) – director, Heathers, Hudson Hawk
• Sean Lennon (attended first year) – singer and songwriter; son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono
• Al Lewis (Ph.D. 1941) – actor, The Munsters; basketball scout; New York gubernatorial candidate; restaurateur
• William Ludwig (B.A. 1932) – screenwriter; co-winner of an Academy Award in 1955 for Interrupted Melody; founder of the Screen Writers Guild (known now as the Writers Guild of America)
• Sidney Lumet – Academy Award-winning film director (nominated five times)
• Yo-Yo Ma – cellist; transferred to Harvard University
• Arthur MacArthur IV (B.A. 1961) – concert pianist, writer, artist
• James Mangold (M.F.A. 1991) – filmmaker, Walk the Line
• Herman J. Mankiewicz (B.A. 1917) – won an Academy Award for co-writing Citizen Kane; brother of Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• Joseph L. Mankiewicz (B.A. 1928) – won four Academy Awards, including Best Director and writing; brother of Herman J. Mankiewicz
• Robert Maschio (B.A. 1988) – actor, Scrubs
• Megan McGinnis (B.A English, 2001) – Broadway actor (Little Women, Les Misérables, Daddy Long Legs)
• Terrence McNally (B.A. 1960) – dramatist, winner of four Tony Awards, an Emmy, a Pulitzer Prize, and two Guggenheim Fellowships
• Max Minghella (B.A. 2009) – actor, starred in The Internship and The Social Network
• Greg Mottola (M.F.A. 1991) – film director, Superbad
• Amber Marchese (B.A.) – television personality on The Real Housewives of New Jersey
• Rachel Nichols – actress, model
• Toby Orenstein (B.F.A) - theatre director, educator, and founder of the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts, the Young Columbians, and Toby's Dinner Theatre^[10]
• Anna Paquin (attended first year) – Academy Award-winning actress, The Piano, X-Men
• Lena Park – Korean singer
• Amanda Peet (B.A. 1995) – actress, The Whole Nine Yards
• Kimberly Peirce (M.F.A. 1996) – filmmaker, Boys Don't Cry
• Anthony Perkins – actor, best known as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
• Paul Robeson (J.D. 1923) – basso cantante concert singer, multi-lingual actor
• Richard Rodgers – composer of musicals including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Oklahoma!, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, collaborator with Oscar Hammerstein II and winner of an Academy Award, 35 Tony Awards and two Pulitzer Prizes
• Cameron Russell – fashion model
• Maureen Ryan (M.F.A. 1992) – co-produced Academy Award-winning documentary, Man on Wire
• Franklin Schaffner – Academy Award-winning film director
• George Segal (B.A. 1955) – Academy Award-nominated actor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Just Shoot Me!
• David O. Selznick (GS, 1923) – Academy Award-winning producer of Gone with the Wind and King Kong
• Jenny Slate (B.A. 2004) – actor, former cast member of Saturday Night Live
• Scott Smith (M.F.A. 1990) – author and screenwriter, A Simple Plan
• Anil Srinivasan – Classical pianist and music educator
• Sarah Steele – actress, Spanglish
• Julia Stiles (B.A. 2005) – actress, Save the Last Dance, Mona Lisa Smile
• Stephen Strimpell (B.A., J.D.) – actor, star of the cult television classic Mister Terrific
• Rider Strong (B.A. 2004) – actor, Boy Meets World
• Conrad Tao
• Craig Timberlake (M.A.) – stage actor, opera singer, and later Columbia faculty member
• Chris Tomson (B.A. 2007) – drummer for Vampire Weekend, Grammy winner
• Mario Van Peebles (B.A. 1978) – actor and director, New Jack City, BAADASSSSS!
• Alan Wagner (B.A. 1951, M.A. 1952) – first president of the Disney Channel; East Coast vice president of programming at CBS; radio personality; opera historian and critic
• Sheri Wilner (M.F.A. 1999) – playwright
• Allie Wrubel – composer and songwriter, Academy Award ("Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah")
• Charles Wuorinen (B.A. 1961, M.A. 1963) – musician, pianist, and composer
• Karl Yune – actor
• Dr Bhupen Hazarika -PhD (1952) - Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker

Journalism

• R.W. Apple (B.S. 1961) – Senior Correspondent, Associate Editor, former Washington Bureau chief, New York Times
• Douglas Black – president of Doubleday and Company, 1946–1963
• Marcus Brauchli – managing editor, The Wall Street Journal
• Jamal Dajani (B.A. Political Science) – Director of Middle Eastern Programming, Link TV, Producer of World News from the Middle East winner of a Peabody Award
• Helen Dalley – Australian journalist; anchor with Sky News Australia
• Max Frankel (B.A.) – executive editor, New York Times
• Melissa Fung (M.A., journalism) – Canadian CBC News journalist
• Nicholas Gage – investigative reporter, foreign correspondent, The New York Times (1970–1980); journalist, The Boston Herald Traveler, The Wall Street Journal
• Robert Giles – curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
• Caroline Glick (B.A. 1991) – American-Israeli journalist; deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post
• Ashbel Green (B.A. 1950, M.A.) – vice president and senior editor at Knopf
• Ken Hechtman – maverick journalist jailed by the Afghanistan's Taliban government as a suspected spy in 2001
• Jay Irving – reporter; cartoonist; father of Clifford Irving, known for perpetrating hoax biography of Howard Hughes
• Leonard Koppett – sports writer, columnist, author
• Steve Kroft – 60 Minutes, three Peabody Awards, nine Emmy Awards
• John Leland (BA, 1981) – New York Times reporter, author
• Joseph Lelyveld (M.A., Journalism) – executive editor, New York Times
• Andy Levy – ombudsman, Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, Fox News Channel
• Thomas Lippman – journalist and author
• Robert Lipsyte (B.A. 1957) – winner of an Emmy Award in 1990, host of The Eleventh Hour on PBS, correspondent for The New York Times and ABC Nightly News
• John McWethy – five Emmy Awards, Overseas Press Club Award
• Andrés Martinez (J.D.) – editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times
• Gabriele Marcotti (M.A., Journalism) – football writer for The Times, The Sunday Herald, La Stampa, Il Corriere dello Sport; host of Five Live Sport on Fridays and The Game Podcast
• Bill Minutaglio (M.S., Journalism) — PEN Center-award-winning author, journalist, professor. Nine books, including First Son: George W. Bush & The Bush Family Dynasty; City on Fire; The Most Dangerous Man in America.
• Ted Rall (B.A. 1991) – editorial cartoonist; Pulitzer finalist; columnist; pundit; author of Revenge of the Latchkey Kids
• Timothy L. O'Brien (M.A., Journalism) – author and journalist; edits and oversees the Sunday Business section of The New York Times
• John L. O'Sullivan – Editor of the Democratic Review during the 1840s; coined the phrase "Manifest Destiny"
• Neil Strauss (B.A. 1991) – journalist and author of Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
• Wayne Allyn Root – creator of Spike TV, Discovery Channel, CNBC; Executive Producer and host of Wayne Allyn Root's Winning Edge and King of Vegas; anchorman and host of Financial News Network
• Claire Shipman (B.A. 1986) – Senior National Correspondent for ABC; winner of an Emmy Award for her CNN coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; her work contributed to CNN winning a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991
• Howard Simons – former curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
• Allan Sloan – seven-time winner of Gerald Loeb Award
• Richard Smith (M.I.A., M.S Journalism 1970) – CEO of Newsweek
• Ron Suskind (M.A. 1983) – journalist, author
• Tiziano Terzani – reporter and correspondent
• Liz Trotta (CSJ) – journalist, three Emmy Awards and two Overseas Press Club awards
• Richard Watts, Jr. – longtime theatre critic for the New York Post
• Gideon Yago (B.A. 2000) – MTV News correspondent

National Book Awards

• John Ashbery – National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award
• Karen Brazell – National Book Award
• Robert Caro – National Book Award, two National Book Critics Circle Awards
• Lennard J. Davis (B.A., M.A., M.Phil, Ph.D., 1976) – National Book Award
• Jason Epstein – National Book Award
• Peter Gay – National Book Award
• Allen Ginsberg – National Book Award
• Stephen Jay Gould – National Book Award, National Book Critics Award, MacArthur Fellowship
• Ursula K. Le Guin – National Book Award
• Herbert Kohl – National Book Award
• Jerzy Kosinski – National Book Award
• Salvador Luria – Nobel Laureate, National Book Award
• Bernard Malamud – National Book Award, O. Henry Award
• Robert Nozick – National Book Award
• Walker Percy – National Book Award
• Gregory Rabassa – National Book Award
• Robert V. Remini – National Book Award
• Francis Steegmuller – twice winner of National Book Award
• Gerald Stern – National Book Award, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
• T.J. Stiles – National Book Award
• Tim Weiner – National Book Award (2007)

Pulitzer prizes

• Leroy F. Aarons – Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting (shared)
• Elie Abel – Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (shared)
• Herbert Agar – Pulitzer Prize for History
• John Ashbery – Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award
• John Berryman – Pulitzer Prize for poetry
• Katherine Boo (Barnard College; B.A. 1988) – Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, MacArthur Fellowship
• Louis Bromfield – Pulitzer prize for Early Autumn
• Ethan Bronner – Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism
• Geraldine Brooks – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• Edwin Burrows – Pulitzer Prize for History in 1999 for the book A History of New York City to 1898
• Robert Neil Butler – Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
• Robert Campbell – Pulitzer prize-winning architectural critic
• Robert Caro – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography
• Hodding Carter – Pulitzer Prize for his editorials
• Margaret Clapp – Pulitzer Prize for Biography
• Robert Coles (M.D.) – Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur Fellowship, Presidential Medal of Freedom
• John Corigliano – Pulitzer Prize for Music, Academy Award, Grammy Award
• Holland Cotter – Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (2009)
• Richard Ben Cramer – Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
• Lawrence A. Cremin – Pulitzer Prize for History, Bancroft Prize
• Justin Davidson – Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
• Bob Drogin – Pulitzer Prize
• Will Durant – Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Jim Dwyer – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize (for Commentary and Breaking News Reporting)
• Andrea Elliott – reporter, New York Times, 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner
• Eric Foner – 2011 Pulitzer Prize for History, Lincoln Prize, twice winner of Bancroft Prize
• Glenn Frankel – author, Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
• Max Frankel – Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
• Robert Giles – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize (under his editorship), current curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
• Louise Gluck – 12th U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Bollingen Prize
• Juan Gonzalez – Pulitzer Prize, George Polk Award
• Charles Gordone – Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• Oscar Hammerstein II – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize
• Anthony Hecht – U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Bollingen Prize, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Frost Medal
• Marguerite Higgins – in 1951, first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
• Jim Hoagland – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize (for International Reporting and for Commentary)
• Richard Hofstader – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize (for History and General Non-Fiction)
• Michael Holley – Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service (team)
• Tony Horwitz – Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
• Richard Howard – Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, American Book Award, Pen Translation Prize, MacArthur Fellowship
• Nigel Jaquiss – Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting
• Margo Jefferson – Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
• Frederick Kempe – twice winner of Pulitzer Prize (both as part of a team)
• Glenn Kessler – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting
• Carolyn Kizer – Pulitzer prize-winning poet, three-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, Frost Medal
• Edward Kleban – Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Award, Drama Desk Award
• Tony Kushner – Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Award
• Jonathan Landman – 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
• Joseph Lelyveld – Pulitzer prize-winning journalist
• David Levering Lewis – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography; Bancroft Prize; Francis Parkman Prize
• Steve Liesman – Pulitzer Prize (team leader) for International Reporting
• Scott Mandel - Sports Commentator, Journalist
• Zhou Long – 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music
• Bernard Malamud – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, O. Henry Award
• John Matteson – Pulitzer Prize for Biography
• Terrence McNally – Pulitzer Prize, four Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards
• Eileen McNamara – Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting, Yankee Quill AwardLouis Menand – Pulitzer Prize for History, Francis Parkman Prize
• Steven Millhauser – novelist and winner of Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• Paul Moravec – Pulitzer Prize for Music
• Tad Mosel – Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• Amy Ellis Nutt (M.A.) – 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing^[11]
• Mirta Ojito – Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
• Dele Olojede – Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, first African-born winner of the Pulitzer Prize
• Tim Page – Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic
• Michael Pupin – Pulitzer Prize-winning physicist
• Matt Richtel – 2010 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting^[12]
• Richard Rodgers – twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize
• Carlos P. Romulo – Pulitzer Prize in Correspondence
• Morrie Ryskind – Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• Carl Emil Schorske – Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, MacArthur Fellowship
• William Schuman – Pulitzer Prize for Music, president of the Juilliard School of Music, president of Lincoln Center
• Louis Simpson – Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Prix de Rome
• Upton Sinclair – Pulitzer Prize, wrote over 90 books in many genres, his novel Oil! was the basis of There Will Be Blood (2007)
• R. Jeffrey Smith – Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting
• Paul Starr – Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, Bancroft Prize, Goldsmith Book Prize
• T.J. Stiles – 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; 2009 National Book Award
• Ron Suskind – Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing
• William Taubman – Pulitzer Prize for Biography, National Book Critics Circle Award
• Edwin Way Teale – Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
• Allan Temko – Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic
• John Kennedy Toole – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• Anne Tyler – Pulitzer Prize (Breathing Lessons), National Book Critics Circle Award (The Accidental Tourist)
• Irwin Unger – Pulitzer Prize for History
• Carl Clinton Van Doren – Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
• Mark Van Doren – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
• Mike Wallace – Pulitzer Prize for History
• Charles Warren – Pulitzer Prize for History
• Tim Weiner – Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
• Eudora Welty – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
• Damon Winter (B.A.) – Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography (2009)
• Herman Wouk – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• Charles Wuorinen – Pulitzer Prize for Music, MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowships
• Brian Yorkey – 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; 2009 Tony Award for Best Score

Science and technology

• Roy Chapman Andrews (M.A.) – dinosaur bone hunter
• Virginia Apgar (M.D. 1933) – effectively founded field of neonatology; created the Apgar score which is used to evaluate the health of newborns
• Edwin Armstrong (B.S. 1913) – inventor of radio circuitry such as the regenerative circuit and FM radio, pioneer in feedback amplifiers, National Inventors Hall of Fame
• Oswald Avery (M.D. 1904) – discoverer of DNA's role in transmitting genetic information
• John Backus (B.S. mathematics, 1949) – inventor of Fortran programming language; won ACM Turing Award; Draper Prize
• T. Romeyn Beck (M.D.) – forensic medicine pioneer
• Baruj Benacerraf (B.S.) – Venezuelan immunologist, National Medal of Science
• H. I. Biegeleisen (B.S.) – physician and vein expert; pioneer of phlebology
• Ira Black (B.A. 1961) – neuroscientist and stem cell researcher who served as the first director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey^[13]
• Wallace Smith Broecker – Crafoord Prize in Geoscience, National Medal of Science
• Shu Chien (Ph.D. 1957) – biological scientist and engineer, 2011 National Medal of Science
• Mildred Cohn (M.S. and Ph.D.) – biochemist, National Medal of Science
• Marie Maynard Daly (Ph.D. 1947) – first African American woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry
• Charles Drew (M.D. 1940) – inventor of blood plasma preservation system
• Helen Flanders Dunbar (Ph.D. 1929) – important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine
• Joseph Engelberger – engineer and entrepreneur, often credited with being father of Robotics
• Val Logsdon Fitch (Ph.D.) – nuclear physicist, National Medal of Science
• James C. Fletcher – physicist, 4th and 7th Administrator of NASA
• Tom Frieden (M.D., MPH) – Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2009-); former New York City Health Commissioner (2002–2009)
• James Glimm (Ph.D.) – mathematical physicist, Priestley Medal, National Medal of Science
• Gordon Gould (Ph.D., did not complete) – inventor of the laser
• Stephen Jay Gould (Ph.D. 1967) – paleontologist and author; MacArthur Fellowship
• Benjamin Graham (B.A. 1914) – father of modern security analysis and value investing, taught Warren Buffett
• William Stewart Halsted (M.D.) – thought by many to be the most innovative, influential and important surgeon the U.S. has ever produced
• Louis Plack Hammett (Ph.D.) – physical chemist; creator of Hammett equation; namesake of Curtin-Hammett principle; Priestley Medal, National Medal of Science
• Michael Heidelberger – immunologist, Lasker Award, National Medal of Science
• Jean Emily Henley (M.D. 1940) – wrote the first German anesthesia textbook after World War II
• Roald Hoffman – chemist, National Medal of Science
• Robert Jastrow (B.A, M.A. Ph.D.) – astronomer
• Arthur Jensen (Ph.D. 1956) – educational psychologist who argued for heritability of intelligence
• Radovan Karadžić (M.D. 1975) – Serb politician, poet, psychiatrist and convicted war criminal, who was convicted on charges of genocide, mass murder, deportations and extermination.
• Michael Katehakis (Ph.D. 1980) – applied mathematics and operations research, Rutgers University
• Leon M. Lederman (Ph.D.) – experimental physicist, Wolf Prize in Physics, National Medal of Science, Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Kai-Fu Lee (B.S. 1983) – former professor at Carnegie Mellon University; former Vice President at Apple Computer; former President of Cosmo Software; established China division of Microsoft Research, establishing China research division for Google
• Robert Lefkowitz (B.A., M.D.) – physician, Shaw Prize, National Medal of Science, 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Yves A. Lussier (B. Engineer., M.D.) – entrepreneur and physician-scientist, inducted Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics
• William Malisoff (Ph.D.) – scientist accused of being a Soviet spy in the Venona project
• Raymond D. Mindlin (B.A., B.S., C.E., Ph.D.) – mechanician, National Medal of Science, Presidential Medal for Merit
• Robert Moog – inventor of Moog synthesizer
• Joel Moses (B.A., M.A.) – MIT Provost and Institute Professor, author of Macsyma
• Eva Neer (M.D. 1963) – biochemist, G protein research discoverer
• Edward Lawry Norton (M.S. 1925) – electrical engineer; discovered the Norton circuit equivalent
• William Barclay Parsons (B.S. 1879) – civil engineer
• William Perl – physicist imprisoned for five years for his involvement in the Rosenberg ring of atomic spies
• Frank Press (M.A., Ph.D.) – geophysicist, National Medal of Science
• Michael I. Pupin (B.S. 1883) – inventor of telephone transmission coils and scientist; Edison Medal; winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography
• Ruth A. M. Schmidt (Ph.D. 1948) -- led group of scientists to assess damage from Great Alaska Earthquake; investigated for disloyalty because of membership in Washington Bookshop
• Julian Schwinger (B.A., M.D.) – theoretical physicist, National Medal of Science
• Benjamin Spock (M.D. 1929) – Olympic rower; pediatrician; author of The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
• Paul Stelzer (M.D. 1972) – cardiothoracic surgeon and expert in the Ross procedure^[14]
• John Stevens (A.B. 1768) – built first steam railroad; responsible for first patent law in the U.S.
• Alfred Sturtevant (Ph.D.) – geneticist, National Medal of Science
• Joseph F. Traub (Ph.D.) – computer scientist, National Academy of Engineering
• Roy Vagelos (M.D.) – mastered three professions: medicine, science, and business
• Harold Varmus (M.D. 1941) – Director of the National Institutes of Health, Nobel Laureate, National Medal of Science, president and CEO of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• Allen Whipple (M.D.) – surgeon known for pancreatic surgery bearing his name (the Whipple procedure)

Astronauts and aviators

• Kenneth D. Bowersox (M.S. 1979)
• Kevin P. Chilton (M.S. 1977)
• Amelia Earhart (attended one semester, 1920)
• William G. Gregory (M.S. 1980)
• Gregory H. Johnson (M.S. 1985)
• Michael J. Massimino (B.S. 1984)
• Story Musgrave (M.D. 1964)
• Eugene H. Trinh (B.S. 1972)

Academics and theorists

• Mortimer Adler – founder of the Great Books movement
• Claude Ake (Ph.D. 1966) – Nigerian political scientist
• Carmen Twillie Ambar (J.D.) – ninth woman to lead Douglass College, 13th president of Cedar Crest College
• Michael Apple (M.A. 1968, Ed.D. 1970) – curriculum theorist
• George Henry Armacost (Ph.D. 1940) – president of the University of Redlands (1945–1970)^[15]
• Kenneth Arrow (M.S., Ph.D.) – economist, John Bates Clark Medal, National Medal of Science
• Frederick A.P. Barnard – University president, namesake of Barnard College
• Wm. Theodore de Bary (B.A.) – East Asian studies expert
• Jacques Barzun – historian
• Ruth Benedict – cultural anthropologist, author of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, a World War II-era study of Japanese culture
• Louis T. Benezet (Ph.D. 1942) – president of Allegheny College (1948–1955), Colorado College (1955–1963), Claremont Graduate University (1963–1970) and the University at Albany (1970–1975)
• Theos Casimir Bernard (Ph.D.) – accomplished American practitioner of Yoga and Tibetan Buddhism; scholar of religion; explorer
• William Bizzell (Ph.D. 1921) – 5th president of the University of Oklahoma, president of what is now Texas A&M University, president of what is now Texas Woman's University
• Sarah Gibson Blanding (M.A. 1926) – president of Vassar College (1946–1964)
• Walter Block (Ph.D.) – Austrian School free market economist
• Joel Bloom (M.A., Ph.D.) – 8th president of New Jersey Institute of Technology (2012—)
• Lee Bollinger (JD 1971) – First Amendment scholar; current president of Columbia, former president of the University of Michigan and former Provost of Dartmouth College; named defendant in two key affirmative action cases in the United States Supreme Court
• Frederick deWolfe Bolman Jr. (Ph.D.) – president of Franklin and Marshall College (1956–1962)^[16]
• Albert H. Bowker (Ph.D. Statistics) – Chancellor of City University of New York (1963–1971) and the University of California, Berkeley (1971–1980)
• Harvie Branscomb (Ph.D.) – 4th Chancellor of Vanderbilt University (1946–1963)
• H. Keith H. Brodie (M.D.) – former chancellor (1982–1985) and president (1985–1993) of Duke University
• Harold Brown – physicist; former president of Caltech; former dean of the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University; former U.S. Secretary of Defense
• George F. Budd (M.A., Ph.D.) – former president of Pittsburg State University, former president of St. Cloud University
• John H. Bunzel (M.A.) – president of San Jose State University (1970–1978)^[17]
• Julian Ashby Burruss (A.M. 1906) – president of James Madison University (1908–1919) and Virginia Tech (1919–1945)
• Nicholas Murray Butler – Columbia University President, Nobel Laureate, president of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Alfred Benjamin Butts (Ph.D. 1920) – chancellor of the University of Mississippi (1935–1946)
• Colin G. Campbell – 13th president of Wesleyan University
• Joseph Campbell – professor of mythology
• John Maurice Clark – economist
• Lotus Delta Coffman (Teachers College) – 5th president of the University of Minnesota (1920–1938)
• Charles W. Cole (M.A., Ph.D.) – president of Amherst College (1946–1960) and United States Ambassador to Chile (1961–1964)
• James S. Coles – former president of Bowdoin College
• Matthew Connelly (B.A.) – historian; Director of Hertog Global Strategy Initiative
• Arthur G. Crane (M.A. 1918, Ph.D. 1920) – first President of Minot State University, president of the University of Wyoming (1922–1941), 20th Governor of Wyoming (January 3, 1949 – January 1, 1951)
• Michael Crow – president of Arizona State University
• Howard A. Cutler (Ph.D. 1953 Economics) – Chancellor of University of Alaska Fairbanks 1975–1981^[18]
• Richard Cyert (Ph.D. Economics) – sixth President of Carnegie Mellon University (1972–1990)
• Henry David (Ph.D.) – president of the New School (1960–1962)^[19]
• Carl Neumann Degler – historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
• John Dewey – philosopher, developed theory of pragmatism
• Donna Robinson Divine – political scientist
• Herman Lee Donovan (Ph.D.) – 4th President of the University of Kentucky (1941–1956)
• Norman Dorsen (B.A. 1950) – Professor of Law at NYU Law School (Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, and Comparative Constitutional Law); Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Joseph Fanning Drake (M.A.) – 4th president of Alabama A&M University (1927–1962)^[20][21]
• Irwin Edman – philosopher and writer
• Noam Elkies – mathematician; three-time Putnam Fellow; co-creator of Schoof–Elkies–Atkin algorithm
• John William Elrod (Ph.D.) – president of Washington and Lee University (1995–2001)^[22]
• Richard Epstein (B.A. 1964) – considered one of the most influential legal thinkers of modern times
• John Rutherford Everett (M.A. Economics 1943, Ph.D. Philosophy 1944) – President of Hollins College (1950–1960) and the New School (1964–1982); Chancellor of the City University of New York (1960–1962)^[23][24][25]
• Claire Fagin (M.A. Nursing) – President of the University of Pennsylvania (1993–1994)
• Livingston Farrand (M.D.) – public health advocate; President of the University of Colorado and Cornell University
• Saul Fenster (M.S.) – 6th president of New Jersey Institute of Technology (1978–2002)
• Charles Ferster (M.A., Ph.D.) – behavioral psychologist
• Moses Finley – historian known for his work on the ancient economy
• Joshua Fishman (Ph.D.) – distinguished linguist specializing in social linguistics, language and culture, and Yiddish
• James C. Fletcher – president of University of Utah; head of NASA
• Guy Stanton Ford (Ph.D. 1903) – 6th president of the University of Minnesota (1938–1941)
• William Trufant Foster (Ph.D. 1911) – first president of Reed College (1911–1919)
• Lether Frazar (Ph.D.) – president of University of Louisiana at Lafayette and McNeese State University, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
• Gilberto Freyre (M.A. 1922) – Brazilian sociologist, cultural anthropologist and historian
• Milton Friedman (Ph.D.) – free market economist, John Bates Clark Medal, National Medal of Science, Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Charles Edwin Friley (M.S. 1923) – 9th President of Iowa State University (1936–1953)^[26]
• Charles Herman Fulton (M.E. 1940) – president of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (1906–1911)^[27]
• Ellen V. Futter (J.D. 1974) – president of Barnard College (1980–93), president of the American Museum of Natural History
• Francis Pendleton Gaines (Ph.D.) – president of Washington and Lee University (1930–1959)^[28]
• Harry Augustus Garfield (Law School) – president of Williams College (1908–1934)
• Gordon Gee (J.D., Ed.D.) – Chancellor of Vanderbilt University and former president of Brown University, Ohio State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the West Virginia University
• Frank Goodnow – president of Johns Hopkins University
• Edward Kidder Graham (M.A.) – president of the University of North Carolina (1914–1918)
• Frank Porter Graham – president of the University of North Carolina (1930–1949)
• Frank Pierrepont Graves (Ph.D. Greek) – president of the University of Wyoming (1896–1898) and the University of Washington (1896–1898)
• Lynne Hanley – literary critic
• Edward Harris (B.A. 1971) – inventor of the Harris matrix
• G. Alexander Heard (M.A., Ph.D.) – Chancellor of Vanderbilt University (1963–1982)
• Ernest O. Holland (Ph.D. 1912) – President of Washington State University (1916–1944)
• Andrew D. Holt (Ph.D.) – 16th president of the University of Tennessee (1959–1970)
• Carl Hovde (B.A. 1950) – president of the New School (1945–1950)
• George Ivany (M.A. 1962) – 7th president of the University of Saskatchewan (1989–1999)
• Jane Jacobs – urban theorist
• Herman Gerlach James – 12th Ohio University President (1935–1943)^[29] and president of the University of South Dakota (1929–1935)^[30]
• Walter Proctor Jenney (E.M. 1871, Ph.D. 1877) – president of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology 1893^[27]
• Thomas E. Jones (M.A. 1917, Ph.D. 1926) – president of Fisk University (1926–1946) and Earlham College
• Edward Kasner (Ph.D. 1899) – mathematician who coined the term "googol"
• Marshall Kay – geologist
• Thomas Kean – president of Drew University; head of 9/11 Commission
• Donald Keene – Japanese studies expert
• Kenneth H. Keller (B.A.) – 12th president of the University of Minnesota (1985–1988)
• Eamon M. Kelly (Ph.D. Economics) – president of Tulane University (1981–1998)
• Raymond Asa Kent (A.M. 1910, Ph.D. 1917) – president of the University of Louisville (1929–1943)^[31]
• Grayson L. Kirk – University President
• Ruth Landes – author, City of Women (1947)
• George Latimer – regent of the University of Minnesota
• Paul Lazarsfeld – founder of the University's Bureau for Applied Social Research
• John LeConte (M.D. 1842) – president of the University of California Berkeley 1869–1870 and 1875–1881
• Joshua Lederberg – Nobel Prize-winning biologist; former president of Rockefeller University; National Medal of Science; Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Umphrey Lee (Ph.D. 1931) – president of Southern Methodist University (1939–1954)
• Harvey J. Levin (M.A. 1948, Ph.D. 1953) – communications economics pioneer
• Ronald D. Liebowitz (Ph.D. 1985) – president of Middlebury College
• Peter Likins – electrical engineer; president of the University of Arizona; former president of Lehigh University
• Seymour Martin Lipset – sociologist
• John V. Lombardi (M.A. 1964, Ph.D. 1968) – president of the University of Florida (1990–1999); chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2002–2007); president of the Louisiana State University System (2007–present)
• Seth Low – president of Columbia University, chairman of Tuskegee Institute (1907–1916)
• John Barfoot Macdonald (Ph.D. 1953) – 4th president of the University of British Columbia (1962–1967); Officer of the Order of Canada
• James Alexander MacLean (Ph.D. 1894) – president of the University of Idaho (1900–1913), 1st president of the University of Manitoba (1913–1934)^[32][33]
• Alfred Thayer Mahan – president of U.S. Naval War College, author of The Influence of Sea Power upon History
• Anthony Marx – president of Amherst College
• Paul Massing – sociologist in the Redhead group of Soviet spies at the University's Institute of Social Research
• Willfred Otto Mauck – eighth president of Hillsdale College 1933–1942^[34]
• James L. McConaughy – president of Wesleyan University and Knox College
• Margaret Mead – anthropologist
• Martin Meyerson – president of State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Pennsylvania, acting Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
• J. Hillis Miller, Sr. (Ph.D. 1933) – fourth President of the University of Florida (1947–1953)
• John D. Millett (A.M. 1935, Ph.D. 1938) – 16th president of Miami University (1953–1964)
• Robert A. Millikan (Ph.D. 1895) – Nobel Prize-winning physicist; first to measure the charge of the electron; early president of Caltech (1921–1945)
• David Wiley Mullins (Ph.D. 1941) – president of the University of Arkansas (1960–1974)
• Frank Newman (MBA) – president of the University of Rhode Island (1974–1983 )^[35]
• Robert Nozick – philosopher
• A. Ray Olpin (Ph.D. 1930) – President of the Utah University (1946–1964)
• Marvin Opler – anthropologist and social psychiatrist
• Michael Oren – historian and author; Israeli ambassador to the United States
• Archie Palmer (M.A. 1927) – 8th President of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (1938–1942)
• Christina Hull Paxson (M.A. 1985, Ph.D. 1987)—19th president of Brown University (2012–); former Dean and Hughes Rogers Professor of Economics & Public Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs^[36]
• John H. Payne (M.A.) – President of Morehead State University (1929–35)^[37]
• Mario Laserna Pinzon – founded the Universidad de Los Andes
• Peter Pouncey – classicist and former president of Amherst College
• Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (B.A., Ph.D.) – Serbian physicist and physical chemist; winner of IEEE Medal of Honor, Edison Medal for his work in mathematical physics
• Stuart Rabinowitz (J.D.) – 8th president of Hofstra University (2000–)
• Jehuda Reinharz – president of Brandeis University
• Ira Remsen (M.D.) – 2nd president of Johns Hopkins University (1901–1913)
• Nicanor Reyes, Sr. (Ph.D.) – founder and first President of the Far Eastern University in the City of Manila, Philippines
• Thomas Hedley Reynolds – historian; president of Bates College
• Judith Rodin (Ph.D.) – psychologist; Chancellor and former president of the University of Pennsylvania; former provost of Yale University
• Brian C. Rosenberg (M.A., Ph.D.) – 16th president of the Macalester College (2003–)
• Murray G. Ross (Ed.D. 1949) – founding president of York University (1959–1970)^[38]
• Murray Rothbard (B.A. 1945, Ph.D 1956) – Austrian school free market economist, father of modern libertarianism.
• James R. Russell – Ancient Near Eastern scholar; professor at Harvard University
• Edward Sapir (B.A. 1904, M.A. 1905, Ph.D. 1909) – linguist and anthropologist, one of the creators of Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
• Alvin Saunders Johnson (Ph.D. 1902) – president of the New School (1921–1945)
• Ruth A. M. Schmidt (Ph.D. 1948) - founded Department of Geology at University of Alaska Anchorage; created the university's first geology lab; taught for 25 years
• William Schuman – president of the Juilliard School of Music, president of Lincoln Center
• Nathan A. Scott, Jr. (Ph.D.) – literary scholar and founder of the theology and literature doctoral program at the University of Chicago
• Anwar Shaikh (M.A., Ph.D. 1973) – Professor of Economics; professor at The New School for Social Research of New York; economist
• Judith Shapiro (Ph.D.) – former president of Barnard College; anthropologist
• Phillip Shriver (Ph.D. 1954) – President of Miami University (1965–1981)
• Kenneth C.M. Sills – former president of Bowdoin College (1918–1952)
• Michael Sovern (B.A., Ph.D.) – president of Columbia University; Dean of Columbia Law School; professor at Columbia Law School
• Charles R. Spain (Ph.D.) – president of Morehead State University (1951–1954)^[39]
• Niara Sudarkasa (M.A., Ph.D. Anthropology) – former president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania
• Daniel Francis Sullivan (Ph.D. 1971) – 19th president of Allegheny College (1986–1996)^[40]
• Patrick Suppes (Ph.D.) – philosopher, National Medal of Science
• Henry Suzzallo (M.A. 1902, Ph.D. 1905) – president of the University of Washington (1915–1926)
• Lida Lee Tall – sixth president/principal of State Teachers College at Towson (now Towson University)
• John W. Taylor (Ph.D. Teachers College) – president of the University of Louisville (1947–1950)^[41]
• Clarence Howe Thurber (Ph.D. 1922) – president of the University of Redlands (1933–1937)^[15]
• William Pearson Tolley (M.A. 1927, Ph.D. 1930) – president of Allegheny College (1931–1942), Chancellor of Syracuse University (1942–1969)^[42]
• Stephen Joel Trachtenberg – president of George Washington University and the University of Hartford
• Lionel Trilling – literary critic
• David Truman – political scientist and educator; former president of Mount Holyoke College
• Andrew Truxal (Ph.D. 1928) – president of Hood College and Anne Arundel Community College
• Victor Twersky (M.S. 1948) – physicist; IEEE Fellow; renowned for his contributions to the multiple scattering theory; professor of applied mathematics in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science at University of Illinois at Chicago (1966–1990)
• Alfred H. Upham (Ph.D. 1908) – President of the University of Idaho (1920–1928) and Miami University (1928–1945)^[43]
• Immanuel Wallerstein (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) – sociologist
• Sean Wilentz (B.A. 1972) – Chair of American Studies at Princeton University; winner of the Bancroft Prize in history
• John Davis Williams (Ph.D. 1940) – president of Marshall University (1942–1946) and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi (1946–1968)
• Jay Winter (B.A. 1966) – World War I scholar at Yale University
• Anna Lomax Wood (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) – anthropologist; public folklorist; President of Association for Cultural Equity
• Harold G. Wren (1921-2016) - dean of three law schools
• Robert Herring Wright – first President of what is now East Carolina University (1909–1934)
• Aaron D. Wyner (Ph.D. 1963) – information theorist noted for his contributions in coding theory^[44]
• Michael K. Young – president of the University of Utah, the University of Washington and Texas A&M University; former dean of the George Washington University law school
• James Fulton Zimmerman (Ph.D. 1925) – president of the University of New Mexico (1927–1944)^[45]
• Howard Zinn (MA, PhD) – historian

Sports

• Mario Ančić (LL.M. 2013) – professional tennis player, later NBA executive
• Roone Arledge (B.A.) – pioneer of sports and news broadcasting with ABC, Monday Night Football, 20/20; winner of 37 Emmy Awards
• Norman Armitage – 17-time national champion sabre fencer, and 6-time Olympian
• José Raúl Capablanca – world chess champion (1921–1927)
• Gary Cohen (B.A.) – New York Mets television play-by-play announcer
• Eddie Collins (CC 1907) – Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman
• Annie Duke – professional poker player
• Devereux Emmet (1885) – golf course architect
• Lou Gehrig (1921–1923) – baseball player for the New York Yankees; enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame; suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ("Lou Gehrig's Disease")
• Vitas Gerulaitis – professional tennis player
• Edward P. Hurt – Morgan State University football, basketball and track coach
• Max Kellerman (B.A. 1998) – ESPN Radio host; HBO boxing analyst

• Dan Kellner – four-time All-American; NCAA foil champion; national champion; two-time Pan American gold medalist and one-time silver medalist; Maccabiah silver medalist
• Sandy Koufax – Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher
• Howard Lederer – professional poker player; brother of Annie Duke
• Sid Luckman (B.A.) – football quarterback, enshrinee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
• James M. "Jim" McMillian – NBA basketball player
• Cliff Montgomery (B.A.) – football quarterback; enshrinee of the College Football Hall of Fame; captain and MVP of Rose Bowl-winning squad; Silver Star recipient in U.S. Navy
• Troy Murphy (B.A. Class of 2015, expected to graduate in December) – former NBA player
• Mark Pope (M.D. Class of 2010, left before graduation) – former NBA player; current head coach at Utah Valley
• Paul Robeson – football All-American, attorney, musician, activist
• Bob Sheppard (M.A. 1933) – sports announcer, "Voice of the Yankees"
• William Milligan Sloane – founder of the U.S. Olympic Committee
• Keeth Smart (Business School) – silver medal, fencing, 2008 Olympics
• Donald Spero (Ph.D.) - Olympic and world champion rower
• David Stern (J.D.) – former NBA Commissioner
• Cristina Teuscher (B.A. 2000) – Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer
• Marcellus Wiley (B.A. 1997) – football player, Pro-Bowl defensive end
• James L. Williams (B.A.) – fencer; Olympic silver medal winner

Activists

See also: notable alumni of Columbia Law School (Activism) and Columbia College (Miscellaneous) for a separate listing of more than 50 activists

• Edythe Scott Bagley (MFA) – civil rights activist, educator
• Anna Baltzer – public speaker and Jewish-American pro-Palestinian activist
• Julius L. Chambers (LL.M. 1964) – civil rights leader, lawyer, and educator
• Eugene Lang (M.S. 1940) – philanthropist, Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Li Lu (B.A., J.D., M.B.A., 1996) – leader of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; one of the first students in the history of Columbia to receive three degrees simultaneously
• James Meredith – civil rights movement figure
• Paul Robeson (J.D. 1923) – civil and human rights activist, international social justice activist, writer, Spingarn Medal
• Leon Sullivan (M.A. 1947) – civil rights activist, anti-apartheid activist, long-time GM Board Member, and Baptist Minister
• Franklin A. Thomas – president of the Ford Foundation (1976–1991)
• Faye Wattleton (M.S. 1967) – president of the Center for the Advancement of Women, National Women's Hall of Fame

References

• Her majesty's Theater
• Her Majesty's Theater
• Her majesty's theater
• Her Majesty's theatre
• Her Majestys Theatre
• Her Majesty's Women
• Her Majesty's Young offender Institution
• Her Majesty's Young Offender institution
• Her Majesty's Young Offender Institutions
• Her Majesty's Young Offenders Institution
• Her Majesty's Young Offenders Institutions
• Her Majesty the Decemberists
• Her Majesty The Queen’s Medal for Shooting Excellence
• Her Majesty & the Wolves
• Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary
• Her Majesty’s Forces
• Her Majesty’s Land Registry
• Her Majesty’s Theatre
• Herma Keil
• Herma Kirchschlaeger
• Herma Kirchschlager
• Her Man
• Herman (Aav)
• Herman A. Blumenthal
• Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek